Book Review: Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire by Gabriel Hunt (series, #4)

Summary:
Gabriel Hunt is independently wealthy and runs around the world saving artifacts, people, etc… Think Indiana Jones in book form. In this entry, a hot lady named Velda shows up at his office asking him to help look for her father who’s gone missing in Antarctica. His last transmission mentions trees, and his colleagues believe he was hallucinating, but Velda wants to save what could be her father’s greatest discovery. Hunt decides to take the case and assembles a team including his best friend, southern charmer Maximilian, and his ex-girlfriend, a mechanic, which is a bit awkward since he’s now banging Velda. When the team gets out to the portion of ice Velda’s father was lost around, they fall into a fission in the ice and discover red ice and a tunnel that just may prove Velda’s father wasn’t hallucinating after all.

Review:
This is what pulp fiction should be all about. This is the kind of book that I finished and immediately contacted multiple friends to tell them the full plot, and then they all wanted to read it for themselves in spite of knowing how it ends. In fact, knowing the ending made them want to read it more. This is the kind of book where I hit one particular scene, and my jaw dropped open and I started laughing hysterically and everyone in my work cafeteria turned to look at me. Basically: this kind of book is why I love pulp fiction and thumb my nose at literary fiction snobs.

Basically, ridiculous things build up and keep happening until suddenly you’re just accepting something in the plot that is INSANELY out there, but in the world the author has created it works. We go from a murderous knife-throwing gypsy who also sells munitions to a mysterious message from a father who survived the Holocaust to falling into a fission in the ice and not dying to leap-frogging across deadly cold water on ice islands to finding an Amazon style jungle under the ice to being attacked by a giant chicken to being taken hostage by a tribe of Amazon Nazi women.

Yes, you read that right. Amazon Nazi women. Most of whom are naturally late teens to early 20s, blond haired, blue eyed, and completely gorgeous. NATURALLY.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “What, Amanda? You’re doing The Real Help project. You host the MIA Reading Challenge. What the what?” But the thing is, this sort of fiction is just about FUN, and the plot is so ridiculous it’s not like I’m going to go out there and say obviously there are murderous Amazon Nazis in the ice under Antarctica. Just….no. It’s overly ridiculous on purpose. Kind of like old school MTV shows like Room Raiders and Next. It’s escapist literature. It knows it’s ridiculous, and that’s ok. Most of it is not offensive if you have a modicum of a sense of humor.

Of course, just because it’s hilarious and ridiculous doesn’t mean it’ll be everyone’s cup of tea. It is quite violent. It probably presses the boundaries of what some people would be ok with reading about sex and violence. You guys know me and know I don’t really have boundaries for those things though. To me this would be the perfect read to give a reluctant male reader. It’s action-packed, fast-paced, and basically a male wet dream. Obviously that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Essentially if you think that a book version of 007 complete with a village of Amazon Nazis under the ice sounds like one of the best things ever, you’re going to love this book. If you read that sentence and rolled your eyes or cringed, then yeah, avoid it. It’s not meant for you.

Featured Quote

"Is all very well thinking everything is going to be different when you come back but then it is all the same. Suppose I have to make it different."
--Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding